Intel compilers are worth it?

Question

Prety straight forward, are there any Intel compilers ? I mainly deal with the system level and desktop work, so I believe that I can be useful. Can anyone with some experience shed light?

Answer 1

If you work in Windows, they provide good acceleration in comparison with other compilers on Intel processors. There is a known behavior when they choose a very slow code path with processors other than Intel (AMD, VIA) and antitrust probes surrounding the problem.

If you use blocks to create threads or other functions, you also run the risk of binding your code to the Intel compiler in the long run, as functionality does not exist elsewhere.

GCC 4.5 on Linux is almost compatible with the Intel compiler. There is no clear winner on this platform.

Answer 2

In the little experience that I had with Intel compilers (C only), I would say that they are far superior. In particular, the OpenMP library was much faster than the open source version. “It's worth it” depends on your situation, although they are expensive, but they are better than IMO.

Answer 3

From the tests I've seen, it seems that using specific Intel compilers provides a performance / multithreading advantage over Open Source alternatives.

Answer 4

if floating point precision is important to you, then use the Visual Studio compiler, not the Intel compiler. 32-bit and 64-bit application. May give you a different result when computed using the Intel compiler. (Verified). The result of the Visual Studio compiler on 32-bit and 64-bit will be the same.

Answer 5

If you are comparing the numerical behavior of ICL and MSVC ++, you should consider the different behavior of the / fp: options. ICL / fp: source (less aggressive than standard) equivalent to MSVC / fp: fast (more aggressive than default). Microsoft does not perform any of the optimizations that are allowed by default in the ICL. These include simd abbreviations (which usually increase accuracy, but in an unpredictable way). ICL also violates the default parens standard. There is still disagreement over whether this should be fixed with more efficient tools than / fp: source.